Almost all Consumer Electronics belong to High-Volume Low-Mix PCB Assembly. They are usually used for entertainment, communication, and education purposes, such as televisions, telephones, stereos, Hi-Fi, AR/VR, fast chargers, and even computers. They are manufactured all over the world. In addition to the huge global market, there are multiple regional markets and segments in which small and middle enterprises operate. Still, these markets always tend to reduce prices over time with manufacturers’ efficiency and technology improvements. That allows consumer electronics to continue evolving.
Most consumer electronics products are constructed from a limited number of PCBAs, which are electrically simple in design and have small functional differences. More differences come from the industrial design of the exterior. On the PCBA, it is mainly controlled by several powerful ICs, such as GPU, MCU, etc. The design of other aspects is relatively simple.
Price Shrinking
The enhancement of software capability and the continuous upgrading of technology have accelerated the iteration speed of consumer electronics. On the one hand, more differentiation has been achieved in software, and on the other hand, the application functions of the core IC have been expanded with more powerful features. Promotion and brand strategy are more reinforced as the Differentiation Strategy. But the homogeneity in the design of hardware such as PCBA has intensified. When new products are launched, the price of old products will be squeezed, and price competition often becomes one of the main marketing methods. Products need to continue to offer costs down after they are launched. The pressure to cut prices will be transmitted retrogradely to some processing plants.
Fluctuating demand
After trial production, consumer electronics will build a buffer according to a demand forecasting model. But most products will suffer drastic fluctuations in demand after it is launched. When the demand increases significantly, the supply chain needs to be able to replenish the goods quickly. Otherwise, the supply chain needs to be timely adjusted to control overall inventory risk. The supply chain of PCBA has to balance overbooking and less booking.
Short product life cycle
The life cycle of High-Volume Low-Mix PCB Assembly is usually short. The design cycle of most products is less than one year, and the sales cycle will last 1-2 years and then be replaced by next-generation products. The challenge of a short life cycle is that sellers must suffer from the high level of stock of raw material and finished goods in a market downtime. It is not enough even if they would like to offer a discount. Another potential risk is that the stock may change from slow-moving to excess, even obsolete parts. Normally, the former situation will come if the production plan cannot be timely adjusted according to the market performance. A more severe influence will occur If the compatibility between the generation and the generation products is relatively poor. Theoretically, customized mechanical/plastic parts and the unique controller will rank at the top2 of excess.
The manufacturing technology of High Volume Low Mix PCB Assembly is not as complex as High-Mix Low-Volume PCB Assembly. The proportion of SMD devices is much higher than that of plug-in devices, and rarely are the devices with a special pin map or lead. A common SMT line plus DIP/wave solder line is fine for most High-Volume Low Mix PCBAs. Unique craftsmanship and testing requests are rare to use. The whole production process pursues extremely high efficiency and low cost.
Eashub can offer customers good prices in the below areas:
Labor cost
This part can be viewed as direct labor cost, determined by production regions’ wages and social security levels. Eashub’s western China plant fully uses local low-cost labor resources and maintains an advantage on labor cost.
Material cost
There are two areas in that Eashub contributes to the material price. First, Eashub can get a good deal with original manufacturers by consolidating customer demands. Second, we can recommend local alternative sources with competitive prices and good quality. We are close to the center of global electronics and establish relationships with hundreds of local suppliers.
Manufacturing overhead: We optimize the process and improve manufacturing efficiency through DFX, automation, tooling, and change inserting to SMD parts.
Supply & demand management
Eashub has an independently developed smart procurement tool to monitor each production batch’s inventory cost. For High-Volume Low-Mix PCB Assembly, we will set a reasonable rolling inventory for long lead time key components based on demand history to hedge against drastic changes in market demand. And run product lifetime management process and mitigate unique IC and customized parts excess in advance. We support BTS(Build to Stock) model and BTO (Build to Order) model. and offers up to 50% flexibility in 4 weeks.
Category/Features | High Mix Low Mix Volume | Eashub’s Capability or Solutions |
Order | ||
Order Quantity by batch | >3000pcs/order | Eashub’s facility has decades of manufacturing experience on low-mix high-volume electronics products. |
Order Frequency | demand by month | Eashub normally reviews the frequency and figures out the best business model. |
Trial Run Order Quantity | >1000pcs/order | Eashub’s NPI capability support demand starts from 1 pcs. |
Product | ||
Application Area | Consumer Electronics | Multi facilities own both consumer electronics and industrial electronics assembly experience. |
Specialty | Miniaturization or special size | Eashub owns the experience of miniaturization and no standard size. |
Application Requirement | NA | Eashub can meet product application’s requirements on reliability, safety and environment. |
Package Design | Yes | Eashub has the capability of packaging design including recycled package and one time package. |
Certificate | ISO9001 | All facility pass ISO9001 |
Manufacturing Process | ||
SMT | Down to 01005 size | Our SMT support 01005 size. |
Performing | No need | 10% of Eashub’s components need performance before wave the solder process. |
DIP | Minority need DIP | All Eashub’s facilities have DIP lines. |
ICT | Yes | Eashub standard process. |
FCT | Yes | Eashub standard process. |
Aqueous Washing | No | Eashub has Aqueous Washing capability. |
Pin Insertion/ | Minority needs Pin Insertion process | Eashub has Pin Insertion capability. |
Crimping | Minority needs Crimping Process | Eashub has Crimping process. |
ORT Test | Seldom needs ORT Test | Eashub has ORT Test capability. |
Aging Test | Minority needs Aging Test | Eashub can support aging test with or without loading. |
Conformal Coating | No | Eashub can support manual coating or auto coating. |
Inspection | Yes | 100% AOI |
Glue Process | Minority needs glue process | Eashub can support Glue process. |
Assembly | Yes | Our standard process |
Fixture capability | Yes | Eashub can in-house design or outsource. |
Quality Control | ||
Quality Standard | IPC 1, IPC 2 | Quality standards meet IPC2, IPC3. |
NPI management | Yes | Dedicate Project for each customer, and regular gate review process coverage whole product life cycle time. |
Warranty | Yes | 1 year free warranty on PCBA. |
Major Challenge | ||
Cost | Competitive low price for every sections | Eashub offers regular cost down proposal after volume production, Eashub will recommend low cost sources, Lean process driving lower cost. |
Demand fulfillment | Response to demand or forecast fast | Eashub has BTS/BTO model. |
Quality | High yield pass ratio | MES system |
Tractability | Minority need | Eashub has bar code system. |
Sourcing | Reliable supply bases support smooth supply | Strictly AVL control by system driving. |
Gating Parts | Yes | VMI or rolling buffer to mitigate the risk. |
Excess | Excess by product upgrade | Eashub can deliver in a very short lead time, this will help customers mitigate excess on the basis. |